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Saturday, 20 September 2014

It's the moment of truth and the moment to lie...

Sacramento :3

It was a long and exhausting road trip to Sacramento from LA, but we made it without any problems. Unless you count the amount of times I wanted to kill Jess for being AN EVIL MASOCHISTIC HUMAN. SERIOUSLY, JESS. WHY. For those of you who don't follow me on Twitter or Instagram, she was hitting me right in the Feels the entire way. I'm talking that BBC version of Kings and Queens, Stronger, interviews, bloody Stranger In A Strange Land...It was bad. But it hurt so good. We stayed the night and woke up bright and early for the show.

We arrived at the venue and checked in for the Meet and Greet. I'm going to be honest here and say that these days are all starting to blur together, so forgive me if I get things wrong. It's been a long (and incredible) week and too many amazing things have been happening!

Jared started off by asking a lot of questions about coffee. Who drinks it, who uses instant and who uses beans, would people use instant if it was really good. Shannon stayed very quiet during this, but I think it's pretty safe to say he has a coffee brand coming out. Especially when you factor in all those visits Jared had to that coffee company this year, when he doesn't even drink coffee! He drinks soy milk, which he was doing while surveying us. Haha.

Jared looked around the crowd as he always does, and pointed out some homemade (but professionally printed) [ECHELON] t-shirts. He told the girls wearing them that he loved them, and asked who made them. They had the definition of Echelon on the front and a triad and the glyphs on the back. I'm not sure what the definition said, but J really loved it. He told them he was going to make the shirts for the Mars Store, and I'm pretty sure he had Reni take a picture of them so he could.

He also pointed out a little girl from the crowd and told her to come out the front. He said he saw her when he was out riding her bike and invited her and her mum out to the show. He said that they had beautiful long hair, and called the mum out the front too. The girl was so nervous and happy. It was beautiful. He said that the mum was cutting her hair soon because her husband died, so she was going to put in "The magic of Mars" then cut it off and bury it with the ashes of her husband. J thought that was really beautiful. He thanked them for coming and told them that it was going to be alright, and gave the girl a little cuddle. He then told her to give Shannon a hug "because he needs it," and to give "Uncle Tomo" a hug too. The girl told Shannon he was the best drummer in the world, which he repeated and said thank you. It was really a beautiful thing to witness. They are so sweet and wonderful.

There was a question about whether or not there would be any Into The Wild screenings. Shannon said something amazing would happen with that, and Jared said yes, definitely. Jared talked about the scenes where he was so sick and said he nearly cried watching them. He said that he was coughing all the time and could hardly even breathe. It was really heartbreaking to even hear him speak about it, so I don't know how any of us are going to cope with watching it. I want to cry just thinking about it. He said that even he didn't realize just how sick he was, and somebody laughed. Both Jared and Tomo told her off. It's not funny.

Somebody asked about why they sometimes wear gloves during the signings, and Jared said they've only done it 6 or 7 times in their whole career. He said it's just to keep him and everyone else healthy, and was done at a time when he was sick. He said it's not because some of us have cooties -- and Shannon called out "but some of you do!!" -- it's just for safety and health. Jared talked about the guy in another band who went on a rant criticizing them for it, and said that he basically shot off his mouth about something he knew nothing about, and was clearly a moron. He didn't bother addressing it at the time because the guy was just an idiot.

Someone asked about blood ball and Jared said maybe in Vegas, and asked who was going to the Vegas shows. He said we'd better get our asses there because it's a Thirty Seconds To Mars show, baby! He spoke directly to Shannon about it how funny that would be to just show up to the iHeartRadio show afterwards covered in blood and take over social media (iHeartRadio is on at the same time as their show) He said they wouldn't even need to stay long, just take some pics, maybe with Taylor Swift in the middle, and that would be all anyone spoke about. He was all giggly while talking about it, which is just the best thing in the world to witness.

Jared then asked us who was going to iheart. I don't think anyone raised their hands. He asked who liked Taylor Swift and someone said they like Mars, and Jared said, "You can like us both." He said he met Taylor and she was really sweet.

Jared said there was time for one more question, and told Shannon to pick it. For the record, they went on to answer at least five more, haha. Love it when they just want to hang with us :)

Someone asked Shannon about releasing a blooper real, and he said they'd never thought of it but it was a good idea. Jared said it's already on Youtube: 'Funny Moments' He had a really sweet smile when he said it. I'm so glad they know about those and about how happy they make us! Tomo also smiled and said, "Yeah, you guys do it for us!"

Someone said hello from Gabby, the little girl in Closer To The Edge. Jared didn't seem to know who that was at first, but asked how she was doing. He said it would be interesting to do a documentary 10 years later with the same people. He said it would be like "7up".

The next question was someone saying hello from someone in Iraq or something, and Shannon said it's time for the signing. I had my The Making Of LOVE LUST FAITH + DREAMS book ready to be signed. When it was my turn Shannon said, "Thanks, [name]!" and Tomo said, "Thanks for supporting." Jared said, "Thanks, [my mum's name]!" to my mum and "Hi, [name]!" to me. Let me just tell you that hearing Jared Leto say hello to you by name in that tone of voice with that look on his face is pretty much greatest thing on the planet. Just ask Bec and Jess, who got a "Hello, Bec!" and a "Jesssssss" from Jared. It was pretty much all we spoke about that night, haha. It's important to note that the way he said, "Jesssss" was the way he said, "Zedddddd" that time Zedd joined them on VyRT. Can you imagine?? I mean my Lord. How Jess managed to walk out of there and not collapse into a puddle is beyond me.

When it was picture time, my mum went first. She did some kind of weird running man thing (seriously, I have no idea what she was doing but it was hilarious!) and nearly tripped. Shannon caught her and bent down to her level (she's very short) and said, "Are you ready, [name]? Are you ready???" and then laughed as they took the picture. Jess was next, and when she walked up to them, she said Jared and Shannon were whispering something about peaches. She said, "What are you Letos whispering about?" They kept whispering then Shannon said, "Hey I like your tattoo!" Next it was my turn, and I asked for silly faces. I have no idea what any of them did. I only know I stuck out my tongue and leant my head against Jared's chest. Finally it was Bec's turn, but I didn't see what she did because I had already started to walk away.

We watched them take the rest of the pictures and then waved goodbye to them as they left. We went and found a place to wait until the show began, where the highlights included...

Ander asking us to do the balloons for This Is War. That was an incredible experience and a half! For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, during the song This Is War, they release huge balloons into the crowd. We were able to wait backstage with the crew so we could help them throw the balloons into the crowd. It was amazing, and pretty funny because one of the crew member was getting annoyed because we were all watching Jared, and the crew member wanted us to watch him so we knew when to release the balloons. Haha. Please. As if we don't know.

Bright lights. Again. This time Jared remembered all the words, and he looked pretty pleased with himself! Haha.

Jared running into the crowd for Kings and Queens and singing to the girls who made the shirts he liked. Then singing the remainder of the song to a man in a wheelchair. He is such a sweetheart. I adore him. Can you tell?

Jared bringing the little girl who's father died onstage for Closer To The Edge and singing to her. Honestly if people still question his motives and talk shit about him at this point, I have no idea what they are seeing because he is just a wonderful human being. Just wonderful.